After a LONG week of grading, grading, grading student work, I'm back making jewelry--YAY! Next weekend I'm going to be in my first craft fair, another milestone in this artist journey. Two years ago it started when someone taught me how to make earrings. Now two years later I have a small craft jewelry business, I'm going to conferences and bead shows, and (most importantly) I'm BLOGGING! This week I selected the Goddess and Eiffel Tower ceramic pendants I just got from Gaea. They made up very nice.
In 1999 I went to Paris. I found it both exhilierating and disappointing. The museums were amazing, and Versailles palace was a dream come true. At night, the Eiffel Tower was all lit up with a thousand white lights. So these ceramic pendants bring back those wonderful memories of Paris. The disappointment came in discovering that Paris is also a very big city and it was very dirty, noisy, and full of smog. I thought I was in Los Angeles...
I'm afraid of heights, so I didnt' go on the ride UP into the tower, but still it was beautiful. If you go to Paris, you must visit the Eiffel Tower at night.
Speaking of Versailles, here is the painting of Martin 1722 showing the palace in its heyday.
For those of you following my mystery novels, book 2 On the House is done. It takes place in Paris, at Versailles. In my research of Paris and Versailles, I discovered King Louis XIV built another palace, Marly, as his weekend escape. This palace complex contained twelve small palaces (royal townhouses?) where the King's friends could stay. There were giant fountains and pools, with fountains that could send water 100 feet into the air. Thomas Jefferson was invited to visit Marly in the court of Louis XVI. Marly was torn down by Napoleon, what a loss. Martin painted this picture of Marly in 1724. Amazing. I hope to get book 2 edited by next summer, ready to field to agents and publishers!
